BAGHDAD — An Iraqi military delegation has gone to Serbia to bring back 19 MiG fighter planes that Saddam Hussein's regime sent for servicing 20 years ago, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
"General Othman al-Fredji, a defence ministry adviser, and Anwar Mohammed Amin, head of the air force, are in Serbia negotiating the return (of the planes) at the earliest possible date," spokesman General Mohammed al-Askari said.
The Soviet-built MiG-21 and 23 aircraft, whose existence has just been discovered, "were sent by Saddam's government in 1989 for maintenance and everything was paid for with Iraqi money," he said.
Askari said the planes are important for Iraq as "our air force only possesses helicopters."
The former Yugoslavia was a major exporter of arms to Saddam's dictatorship before breaking up in the 1990s.
Askari said the ministry "is searching in the United States, France, Italy, Russia and some Arab countries to locate funds or military equipment that the former government bought for its army."
Iraq has found two navy vessels belonging to it in Egypt and two others moored in Italy as well as "aircraft and equipment in Russia and France," the spokesman said, without giving further details.

Serbs should charge them rent. There is little use for these aerocraft unless they plan on fighting Iran. What they should do is demand the return from Iran of Su-25s. These would be well suited to fighting the insurgency.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is negotiating the return of 19 fighter jets that Saddam Hussein's regime sent to Serbia for servicing at the end of the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.

A delegation had gone to Serbia to start the process and to "recover the money misspent by the former Iraqi regime," the ministry said in a weekend statement.

Sanctions slapped on Iraq because of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 would have made it impossible to bring the MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters back while he was in power.

"We discussed the matter with the Serbian side about the possibility of repairing these aircraft and returning them to service," the ministry said. "Everyone knows our need for fighter jets."

Two of the jets were ready for "immediate use," the statement said, and a preliminary agreement had been reached with the Serbian government to repair the others and send them back.

The statement did not say when the existence of the fighters had come to light.

Iraq wants to rebuild its once-strong air force as it seeks to reconstruct a military devastated by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and a decision by Iraq's U.S. administrators to disband Iraqi forces in the aftermath.

The country announced in March that it wanted to buy a squadron of 18 Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighter aircraft. It was unclear whether that deal would be affected by the discovery of the MIGs.